Racial segregation

Racial segregation is a kind of formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race, characterized by their separation from each other. The separation may be geographical, but is usually supported by providing services through separate institutions (such as schools) and through similar legal and social structures. See also: racism.

Although racial equality is, at least in theory, granted to all citizens in the US today, some see the USA Patriot Act as an attempt at covert racial segregation or discrimination against non-citizens. Arabs and Pakistanis, who have similar skin color, are allegedly subjected to different procedures that do not apply to others. However, the US has strict rules against racial profiling to prevent such segregation.

Apartheid was a system which existed in South Africa for about fifty years. It was abolished in the late 1980s, following a rapid change in public perception of racial segregation throughout the world.

Many white separatists are believers in white supremacy, but some do not. Some consider the segregationists of the Southern United States and the advocates of apartheid in South Africa as being white separatists as these advocates of segregationism and apartheid used the same language of separatism and denied that they were "White supremacists" despite evidence to the contrary.. Both groups also had advanced a belief in the inherent "inferiority" of non-whites, whom they claimed are incapable of properly either governing themselves or any other races. Some segragationists put forward the proposition that "separation" doesn't necessarily mean superiority and thus endorsed the "separate but equal" proposition for educational segregation that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Kevin Alfred Strom, on the National Alliance's white separatist radio program American Dissident Voices, defined the difference between white separatism and supremacy this way:

"A supremacist—of whatever race—is distinct from a 'separatist.' A separatist may believe that his race is superior to other races in some or all characteristics, but this is not his essential belief. The separatist is defined by his wish for freedom and independence for his people. He wishes them to have their own society, to be led by their own kind, to have a government which looks out for their interests alone. The separatist does not wish to live in a multiracial society at all, so he naturally has no desire to rule over other races—since such rule necessitates the multiracial society the separatist wants to avoid at all costs." [1]

Sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie Shanks-Meile contend that terms such as "white separatism" and "white nationalism" are euphemisms that have been adopted by what they refer to as neo-nazi and racist groups as a tactical move in order to make their views seem less extreme. The Center for Democratic Renewal likewise called the term "white separatist" a "media gloss." [1]

Light-skinned people are found among many ethnic groups, and the genetic basis of light pigmintation is not exclusive to any one particular racial category. Generally, white separatists claim genetic affiliation with Anglo-Saxon cultures, and sometimes to beliefs asserting ancestory with the Semetic peoples of the Christian bible. White separatists are often found among Christian Identity groups, some of whom refer to the United States as the "Zionist Occupation Government" and propose a "White" homeland in the northwestern corner of what is currently the United States of America.

The anti-racist group Turn it Down, which campaigns against White Power music, defines the term "white separatist" thusly:

"white separatist: a euphemism for white supremacist. The label has been adopted by individuals and organizations to obscure or present a more benevolent facade for the beliefs in racial segregation and/or neo-Nazism." [1]

The National Alliance, a white separatist group which is often accused of being white supremacist and neo-nazi, has referred to Adolf Hitler in an editorial as being the "greatest man of our era" [1], but still claims not to be a white supremacist group and dismisses all criticism of this type as part of a "Jewish plot" to suppress the "racial defense mechanisms" of all white people by accusing all those who believe in "white separatist ideals" as being "white supremacists". [1].